The Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund, established at the Foundation in 2003, is awarded to Rhode Island artists whose work demonstrates exceptional creativity, rigorous dedication and consistent artistic practice, and significant artistic merit. We’re pleased to share that cellist and CMW Resident Musician Adrienne Taylor is one of three recipients of this year’s award.

I feel honored and grateful to be a recipient of the 2021 Margaret and Robert MacColl Johnson Fellowship for composition. The fellowship will give me the opportunity to continue writing music inspired by natural spaces and to expand my writing beyond the cello to include other instruments. My solo cello album, SoLa, came out of a very solitary time in my life, and the cello as a singular voice fit the expression of what I was experiencing then. Now, during the pandemic, I’ve been thinking about how much I value the relationships I share with people and the connection I feel with my musical colleagues and friends. I’m yearning for a time when I can make music together with other people again, and I’m feeling inspired to write music that I hope to be able to play one day with the musicians in my life who I care deeply about. It gives me something to dream about for the future.

The hardest part for me is finding the time and space to write. I plan to start writing next month during my practice retreat, an opportunity Community MusicWorks gives to Resident Musicians to take a week away from our regular work in order to focus on a project we’re feeling inspired about. It’s such a rare thing to be part of an organization that values people’s personal musical development in this way. I continue to be grateful to CMW for all of the ways the organization supports its musicians.

–Adrienne Taylor
Cellist and CMW Resident Musician

Learn more about Adrienne on our staff info page.

Read Adrienne’s interview in the Providence Journal.

Photo by Erin X. Smithers

The final Sonata Series Event of the season shares music of hope and despair in a mélange of styles and features conversation with the performers.

Ashley Frith, violist and CMW’s Director of Racial Equity and Belonging, shares Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Lamentations: A Black/Folk Song Suite” (originally written for cello) and her rendition of Rhiannon Giddens’ sorrowful and defiant “At the Purchaser’s Option.” The second half of the program features Resident Musician cellist Adrienne Taylor joined by pianist Andrei Baumann. This dynamic duo performs the popular spiritual “Deep River” and for a finale, Claude Debussy’s fantastical and whimsical “Cello Sonata.”

Join us for this final event in our Sonata Series!
Thursday, February 18 at 7pm EST
Click here to join us!

WATCH A SNEAK PEEK HERE!

Andrei Baumann, pianist
An active soloist, chamber musician, Andrei Baumann has performed extensively in the USA, Europe, Canada and Venezuela. As winner of the 2009 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, he performed with the quartet in Jordan Hall on January 29th, 2009. His Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall occurred in May 2008 with violinist Lily Francis as part of the Distinctive Debuts series. Other notable performances include a solo recital on the Sundays Live Concert Series at Los Angeles County Arts Museum which was broadcast by KCSN, 88.5 FM, solo recitals at the Crocker Art Museum Classical Music Series in California, performances at Caramoor Festival and with Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program. Andrei has performed in masterclasses for such distinguished artists as Elisso Wirssaladze, Pavel Gililov, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank and Marc Durand. Among the numerous festivals he has participated in are Corsi in Sermoneta, Italy; Ost-West Musikfest in Krems, Austria; Internationaler Kammermusikkurs in Böhlen, Germany; Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland; Banff Centre for the Arts and Orford Arts Centre in Canada; and in the USA, Aspen Music Festival, Perlman Music Program. Recent performances have included a Mothers Day performance (2017) of the Grieg Piano Concerto with Peter Jaffe and the Auburn Symphony, and numerous chamber music performances with cellist Susan Lamb Cook and friends. Mr. Baumann is a frequent performer at the Mondavi Center, Harris Center, Crocker Art Museum and others venues in Northern California. He also recently released a second album Miroirs, which includes works by Bach, Debussy and Ravel. Mr. Baumann has a Masters of Music in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory in Boston, a Künstlerischer Ausbildung Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany, and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. His most influential teachers have been Andre Laplante, Jamie Saltman and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein. Mr. Baumann has been a piano faculty member at the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, MA, Head of the Piano Department at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine, and piano faculty at the Sacramento Youth Symphony Summer Chamber Music Workshop. Additionally, he has been a jury member at the A. Ramon Rivera Piano Competition at Rivers School Conservatory in Weston. Currently living in Providence, RI, Mr. Baumann performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician with members of Community Music Works. Recent collaborations have included programs with the Newport, RI dance group Island Moving Company. He teaches locally at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School. website: aabadventures.com. email: andrei.baumann@gmail.com

Ashley Frith, viola/vocals
Ashley studied viola with Lila Brown at The Boston Conservatory. In her role as Director of Racial Equity and Belonging at CMW, her work consists of performing, teaching, and developing anti-racism curricula. Focusing on care partnerships, her anti-racism work particularly addresses how racism affects our individual and collective interiority with an emphasis on how we can enter this work through the practice of care. Ashley was the music director, composer, and lyricist for the Trinity Repertory Company’s 2018-19 season production of Jose Rivera’s Marisol, directed by Brian Mertes. She is currently composing music for a production with Off The Page Education in NYC, on allyship. Ashley also explores the use of sound as a healing modality, in combination with mindfulness practices, and the effect these tools can have on mental health.

Adrienne Taylor, cellist
Adrienne has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and has performed with innovative chamber music ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, the Sphinx Virtuosi and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Adrienne finds inspiration in collaborations with composers, singer/songwriters, and other musicians, as well as in her work in film, theater and dance. She also writes and performs her own music for solo cello, and released her debut album SoLa in 2018. Adrienne was one of 50 musicians selected to be a Sistema Fellow at New England Conservatory, where she studied Venezuela’s renowned youth orchestra and social action program, El Sistema. She went on to start the Daily Orchestra Program at Community MusicWorks, which combines core principles of Community MusicWorks with ideas and practices from El Sistema.